Literary notes about Overlooked (AI summary)
The word "overlooked" in literature exhibits a fascinating duality. In some texts, it serves a literal role, describing a physical vantage point—such as a casement that overlooks a rampart [1] or a plateau that overlooks the sea [2, 3]—thereby evoking images of expansive, commanding views. In other contexts, "overlooked" is employed metaphorically to denote neglect or the failure to notice something significant, whether it be a detail in a narrative [4, 5, 6], a fault in character [7, 8], or even historical oversights [9, 10]. This versatility enriches the word's impact, drawing on visual imagery to underscore a subtler commentary on human inattention or deliberate disregard.
- One of the high casements, which she opened, overlooked a rampart, but the view beyond was hid in darkness.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe - Then he rushed to the side of the plateau which overlooked the sea, and remained there a long time motionless.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - Harding applied his eye to the aperture, which overlooked the ground from a height of eighty feet.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - It has been completely overlooked, for example, by the illustrators.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - The servants deny having seen it before, but among the numerous curiosities in the house it is possible that it may have been overlooked.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - “You may conceivably have overlooked it.”
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Her clients said that Lena ‘had style,’ and overlooked her habitual inaccuracies.
— from My Ántonia by Willa Cather - If he had confessed , I should have overlooked his fault.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - If they overlooked him, he could hardly overlook them, since they stood with their whole weight on his body.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - Now we overlooked a remarkable distinction between the conceptions.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
